‘When you got here, can you recall the people who were aiding him?’
‘Of course. The manager, Lee, was superb, poor sod. He slipped on top of him. Terrible.’
‘You’re good with details. Have you ever worked with the RMP?’
He nodded. He had a critical brain – when it worked – and Kelly suspected he might have had some experience with investigative cases. The Royal Military Police was just a good guess. He could even have been MI6. She reckoned he was in his late sixties. Too young to suffer from such a horrible disease.
‘Are you retired?’
‘Yep. That’s why we came here.’
‘You and your wife?’
‘Yes. Ursula, my wife, loves the Lake District. The idea was that we would live here and walk every day and do all the things you dream about before life takes over.’
Kelly allowed him to expand. It didn’t seem to her as if things had quite worked out as planned.
‘We discovered Ursula had early onset dementia shortly after coming here. I’m her carer.’
They sat at a bench.
‘I’m sorry.’ Life surely was cruel, but she got the impression Melvin was unaware he was struggling too. He seemed to drift inand out of cognisance. He’d make an unreliable witness but that didn’t mean he wasn’t valuable.
‘It changed our plans somewhat.’
They watched the couple swim out to the centre of the lake and pretend to sink one another. She was reminded of when she and Johnny used to do that and found herself wandering away from her job here at Heron Hall and back in time when things were simpler. She gazed at her ruby ring and touched it for some kind of support. She felt silly.
‘Do you need to get back to her?’ Kelly asked.
‘I do, but she also needs to maintain her freedom else it will get worse quicker, or that’s what we’ve been told. I don’t really trust doctors, do you?’
‘Erm, I suppose I do, yes. My father is the coroner, and I trust him with my life.’
‘The old chap?’
‘Same.’
‘Now I see the resemblance. Nice fella. I bet you two are the dream team.’
Kelly smiled. ‘Why don’t you trust doctors?’
‘It’s a long story,’ he said. Kelly found Melvin Stone cryptically fascinating. She’d like to share a pint with him to learn all his stories.
‘All this lot,’ he added, pointing his thumb at the hotel. ‘At the end of the day they’re all in it for the money, aren’t they? I spent all day yesterday chatting to them and none of them talked about Jamie Robbins. I know more about him because of asking questions than any one individual could tell me. They’re corporate animals.’
‘What has that got to do with doctors?’
‘They’re all cut from the same cloth, aren’t they? This lot mess with food and drugs, doctors deal them.’
Kelly thought about his synopsis and couldn’t argue with it. She found herself smiling. He sounded like her father. Ted never used to be cynical, it was only in the last couple of years that she’d watched him become less tolerant of bullshit.
‘To be fair, they’re not personal friends, they’re colleagues. I know the army is different. You live with your work mates, but civilian life isn’t like that,’ Kelly said, offering some defence.
‘I know, but look at what they’re peddling here. This shit.’ Melvin produced a sachet ofYouthBlast.‘They’ve got these kids fighting one another to show that this crap works. They’ve lost the plot. Health is just a business, and the docs are all in on it. They’re glorified drug pushers. When was the last time you went to your GP, and they tried to get to the heart of what was wrong with your body? Or did they just send you away with a prescription?’
Kelly thought about it.
‘Fair point.’ She sighed. ‘And I came out here to have a straight conversation.’
